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The Business Value 

of 

Civil Service Reform 


PUBLISHED BY THE 

NATIONAL CIVIL SERVICE REFORM LEAGUE 
79 WALL STREET, NEW YORK 

1909 







,H 3 


G I ft, 

Publisher 

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The Business Value of Civil Service Reform 

Civil service reform is a business-like method of 
selecting public officials and employees. It secures for 
the government, whether national, state or municipal, 
employees more capable and honest, and administration 
more economical and efficient than under the spoils sys¬ 
tem of appointment for political reasons. 

The purpose of this article is to present from the 
mass of testimony in favor of civil service reform spe¬ 
cific and concrete examples of the efficiency, integrity 
and economy secured by this system. 

Ten Per Cent in Salaries Saved 

A conservative estimate, based upon official reports 
of public officers, indicates as a result of the operation 
of the civil service rules a net saving in salaries paid, of 
at least ten per cent.— Fifteenth Report of U. S. Civil 
Service Commission, p. iy. 

A Saving of About One-Half in Salaries 

Secretary of the Treasury Windom, gave it as his 
experience that, under the old system, prior to a change 
of administration the work of the clerks in his depart¬ 
ment fell off nearly a half, and that it took the suc¬ 
cessors of those who were changed at least six months 
to learn their duties. Accepting the average salary of a 
government clerk as about $800 this would mean, in 
Presidential years at least, that nearly half this salary 
was wasted, no return being obtained by the people for 
the amount paid out.— Sixth Report of U. S. Civil Ser¬ 
vice Commission , p. 6. 

$1,400 Saved 

One of Boston’s aldermen has a brother who drew 
$2.50 a day as a provisional inspector of lumber, and 
who did not inspect any lumber. Eventually, this 
brother was appointed provisional caretaker of horses, 


2 


and his wages increased to $1,400 a year. The civil 
service commission held an examination, but the alder¬ 
man’s brother failed to obtain a place on the eligible list. 
It was thereupon found that the position of caretaker of 
horses at $1,400 was not necessary, and no one was 
appointed, a saving to the city of $1,400 .—Good Gov¬ 
ernment, November , 1907 . 

$179,000 Saved 

In a speech before the Detroit Municipal League in 
1905, Hon. Joseph W. Errant, President of the Chicago 
Civil Service Commission, gave figures showing a sav¬ 
ing of $179,000 in the management of one department 
in that city. In 1899, the cost of maintaining 1,801 miles 
of water pipe was $419,000, while in 1905 the same work 
cost $240,000, although the amount of water piping had 
been increased to 1,978 miles. At the same time, Mr. 
Errant gave figures showing that the cost of keeping 
streets and alleys clean under the merit system had been 
reduced from $19.61 per mile to $12.90 .—Detroit tree 
Press. November 14 , 1905 . 

Cost of Collecting Water Taxes Decreased About 
One-Third 

From figures given by the Superintendent of the 
Water Department of Chicago, in a letter dated Decem¬ 
ber 31, 1904, a saving under the merit system of one- 
third in the cost of collecting water taxes in that city is 
shown. The following figures show the cost for the year 
1894, a year before the passage of the Civil Service Law, 
and the cost for the year 1904, ten years afterwards: 

YEARS RECEIPTS EXPENSES PER CENT 

1894 $3,010,259.92 $287,306.92 9 >4 

1904 $4,000,000.00 $260,000.00, 6 ^ 

Saving of Twenty-Five Per Cent 

The late Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, Charles 
S. Hamlin, who was in direct charge of the collection 
of customs, makes the following statement in a commu¬ 
nication to the Commission: 


3 


“As to the application of the civil-service rules to 
that branch of the government service relating to cus¬ 
toms, from the experience that I have had in the Treas¬ 
ury Department during the past four years, I am of the 
opinion that there has resulted a saving to the Govern¬ 
ment of at least 25 per cent in cost. From the point of 
view of efficiency, I believe the the saving to have been 
greater.”— Fourteenth Report U. S. Civil Service Com¬ 
mission, p. 14 . 

A Saving of Over Two Million Dollars 

Thus there will have been covered back into the 
treasury since March 7, 1893, $2,066,661.19 out of a total 
amount of $11,179,455.45 on hand and appropriated. 

That these great economies have been affected with¬ 
out in any way marring the efficiency of the department 
work or unduly limiting its scope is due in a very large 
degree to the application of civil service rules both in 
letter and spirit. The wide extension of the civil ser¬ 
vice classification under the law has been proved by ex¬ 
perience to be not only a great help, but absolutely in¬ 
dispensable to the maintenance of an economical and 
efficient administration of the public service.— Report of 
the Secretary of Agricultnre , 1896 . 

$390,000 Per Year Saved in One Bureau 

The last report of the Superintendent of the Bureau 
of Engraving and Printing shows that, notwithstanding 
the work of that Bureau had increased over 77 per cent, 
the force has only increased 11 per cent. An investi¬ 
gation made by a commission of Treasury experts into 
the work of this bureau prior to the enactment of the 
civil service law found the force largely in excess of re¬ 
quirements for the service, and recommended sweeping 
reductions. In this report the following language is 
used: 

“The total decrease is equal to about 36 per cent of 
the force as it existed in April, and results in the saving 
to the Treasury of about $390,000 per annum.”— Thir¬ 
teenth Report U S. Civil Service Commission. 


4 


A Yearly Saving of Nearly Three Millions 

That the maintenance of the Commission is directly 
in the interest of economy is clearly shown by the sta¬ 
tistics prepared last year in connection with the govern¬ 
ment service in Washington, D. C. In these statistics 
the growth of the classified positions was compared with 
the growth of the unclassified positions, and it appeared 
that since 1883 (the year of the organization of the Com¬ 
mission) the unclassified positions, which have been 
subject to political control, have increased in number 
37 per cent and in cost 43 per cent, while the classi¬ 
fied positions subject to examinations have remained at 
a standstill, practically the only increases in their num¬ 
ber having been made by the extensions of the rules to 
cover positions previously unclassified. Had the classi¬ 
fied positions increased in the same proportion as the 
unclassified positions increased up to the time of their 
classification, an extra yearly expenditure for additional 
salaries in Washington alone of more than $3,000,000 or 
twenty times the cost of the maintenance of the commis¬ 
sion, would be required .—Fourteenth Report of the U. 
S. Civil Service Commission , p. ij. 

$3,000 Saved 

While the commission has no power to prevent un¬ 
necessary appointments.provided such appoint¬ 

ments are made according to civil service rules, the ex¬ 
istence of such rules makes it more difficult to pad the 
payrolls. 

The case involving the appointment of John J. 
Douglas to the position of Assistant Superintendent of 
the Ferry Division of the Street Department of Boston 
was decided by the Supreme Judicial Court, the appoint¬ 
ment being held to be in violation of the civil service 
law. 

The commission held a competitive examination on 
March 29, 1907, to establish a list of eligibles for the 
position. No appointment was made, however, to fill 
the place, and it has remained vacant. 

This result constitutes a pertinent illustration of the 
manner in which the application of the merit system 




5 

tends toward economy in city administration.The 

net saving to the city of Boston in this case is $3,000— 
the salary of the deposed Assistant Superintendent.— 

Twenty-fourth Report of Massachusetts Civil Service 
Commission. 


$9,600 Saved in One Year 

The new warehouse of the Department of Elections, 
under construction at Eighteenth and Division Streets, 
is a monument to the efficiency of civil service reform. 
It is being built out of the savings of an office that was 
once one of the most wasteful and extravagant in the 
city government, but which has become through the 
operation of the merit system one of the most efficient 
and economical. 

There has long been a necessity for some sort of safe 
storage for the election booths in use in the city. At pres¬ 
ent they are stored in an inflammable wooden structure 
surrounded by furniture factories, and if they were to 
take fire just before an election the city would not only 
lose the $30,000 they represent in money value, but the 
whole election machinery would be deranged and thrown 
into hopeless confusion. The warehouse above will be 
built of brick, with but few doors and windows, will be 
practically fireproof, and will be amply large enough to 
accommodate the million or so feet of lumber of which 
the booths consist. 

The cost will be about $9,600. The entire sum was 
saved out of the appropriation for the department of 
elections last year, and it is due to operation of the 
merit system in the office of Registrar Thomas J. Walsh, 
that the saving was made possible. Since 1900 the 
department has lived within the appropriations and has 
had a small surplus at the end of each year, a condition 
unknown under the Consolidation Act. Before the 
adoption of civil service reform, and when elections were 
held once in two years, the expenses of the Department 
of Elections averaged $200,000 a year, and have been 
known to reach $290,000. Under the charter the cost 
has been reduced to an average of $113,000 a year, and 
we now have from two to four elections annually. 

It must be gratifying to taxpayers to know that in at 



6 


least one municipal department it has been possible to 
make a permanent improvement out of current revenue. 
That it has been possible is entirely due to Mr. Walsh’s 
economical administration of his office on merit system 
principles.— Merchants' Association Review . San Fran¬ 
cisco , Cal., September ipoj. 

Over Two Million Dollars and a Year's Time Would 
Have Been Saved Under The Merit System 

In 1896 (Senate Document No. 5, Fifty-fourth Con¬ 
gress) Hon. Carroll D. Wright, Director of the Census, 
stated: 

‘ ‘The absolute necessity of bringing the whole census 
force into the classified service, in accordance with the 
act of January 16, 1883, and the amendments thereto 
and rules thereunder, seems to me perfectly apparent. 
Had this been the rule in the Eleventh Census there 
would have been, in my opinion, a saving of at least 
$2,000,000 and more than a year’s time.” 

Subsequently in a letter to Senator Lodge (Congres¬ 
sional Record, December 15, 1907) he compared the 
cost of similar work in the Department of Labor, under 
civil service rules, with the cost of taking the census, 
and stated: 

“Bringing the comparison to a concrete and quantita¬ 
tive statement, it is seen that had the cost of preparing 
the matter by the Eleventh Census Office been at the 
same rate per 1,000 nonpareil ems as was the cost of 
preparing like matter in the Department of Labor, the 
total cost under the first comparison—that is, exclusive 
of printing, engraving and binding—would have been 
$3,595,432.68, instead of $10,016,677.68, a saving of 
$6,421,245, while under the second comparison, that ex¬ 
cluding the cost of the field force in collecting the mate¬ 
rial as well as that of printing, engraving and binding, 
it would have been $2,298,821.94, instead of $5,670,- 
847.15, a saving of $3,372,025.21. 

“The above statements more than justify the opin¬ 
ion which I expressed in the report on a plan for a per¬ 
manent census service, for instead of an extra cost of 
$2,000,000, to which I guardedly limited myself, it is 


7 


apparent that under the first comparison there was an 
extra cost of $6,421,245, and under the second compari¬ 
son of $3,372,025. The magnitude of the census work, 
the lack of time for preparation, the temporary nature 
of the force, etc., may properly, and perhaps sufficiently 
account for the extraordinary expense above the 
$2,000,000, which I have attributed to the absence of 
civil-service rules.” 

Increase of 37 Per Cent in Work 
Decrease of 20 Per Cent in Cost 

From a letter of H. G. Pearson, Postmaster, City of 
New York, January 10, 1889: 

“Methods involving such competitive tests have, to 
a greater or less extent, obtained at this office since 
1872.A further result of the re¬ 

formed system of appointment has been in the direction 

of economy.as shown by the fact 

that while in one of its largest departments (mailing and 
distribution) the bulk of mail matter handled had in¬ 
creased in 1882 37.30 per cent over that handled in 1874, 
the cost of the service required in handling it was 20 
per cent less. ... In the money order department the 
records show that for the past nine years there has been 
an increase in the number of orders issued, paid, etc., 
of 110 per cent; and in the amount of money handled 
of 94 per cent, while the increase in the cost of clerical 
service required for the performance of the business has 
been but 18 per cent .”—First Report N. Y. State Civil 
Service Commission, p. 2jo. 

Reduction in Force: Increase in Work 

Since March 7, 1893, the classified service has been 
extended until it includes every important permanent 
position in the United States Department of Agri¬ 
culture. Reports from chiefs of bureaus and divisions 
since this clasification are unanimous in praising the 
enhanced value of the service rendered by their assist¬ 
ants and employees. In efficiency and economy the 
•classification has very visibly improved the work. 





8 

Decrease of 280 Employees — Increased Work 

March 4, 1893, there were 2,497 men and women 
upon the payrolls of this department. But on Novem¬ 
ber 1, 1896, there were only 2,217 on the rolls ; that is 
—notwithstanding an increased amount of work—there 
had been a reduction in the force of 280. 

Decrease of 23 Employees—Work Trebled 

The effect of placing the Bureau of Animal Industry 
within the classified service has been very marked in 
increasing its efficiency and improving its discipline. 
This is particularly apparent with the employees sta¬ 
tioned at other cities than Washington. The decreased 
expense of the inspection work is largely due to this im¬ 
provement in the force.On March 4, 

1893, there were 781 persons employed by this Bureau, 
but on November 1, 1896, there are only 758, notwith¬ 
standing the fact that the work has more than trebled. 
—Report of the Secretary of Agriculture , i8p6. 

Increased Effiency: Fewer Employees 

This meteorological service has developed since 
1870 until it is the largest in the world. We have in 
this service, I can fairly say, a merit system that knows 
no favorites. I was an employee of the old federal ser¬ 
vice a third of a century ago, when there was no civil 
service, and when, I do not hesitate to say, corruption 
was rampant in almost every branch of the public ser¬ 
vice. A man could sell nothing to the government 
from which somebody did not get a rake-off, all the way 
from the receiving clerk up—very high up, sometimes. 
Furthermore, at that time for every position there were 
several unnecessary men and probably not more than 
one out of ten competent to perform his duties. This 
was not the fault of the men, it was not the fault of the 
politician, it was not the fault of executive officers; it 
was the fault of the system and, therefore, of the whole 
American people. 

All of that is changed to-day; the appointing officer, 
the chief of a bureau, the secretary of a department, has 
no incentive to increase his force beyond that which he 



9 

needs to perform the public duty. Why? Because he 
cannot put his friends into office. The legislator has no 
incentive to appropriate more public money than is 
needed for public employees, because he cannot control 
who shall be appointed, and so, as a result, I believe 
during the first twenty years of the application of the civil 
service law, notwithstanding the fact that the public 
business increased several fold, the number of federal 
employees actually decreased. 

I can give you an illustration in my own bureau. 
The law was just beginning to come into effect—it was 
not wholly in effect over all places—when I came into 
the chiefship of that bureau. I have to-day twelve fewer 
employees at the central office at Washington than I 
had when I went there fourteen years ago. That is not 
due to any virtue of my own, it is due to the application 
of the correct principle. In that time no person dis¬ 
missed for cause—we have always tried to be sure of 
our cause—has ever been reinstated in the public ser¬ 
vice. There is absolutely no patronage in the weather 
service for any senator or representative or any one else, 
and I do not believe that either myself or the other 
administrators of the weather service have a single 
enemv in either hall of Congress. We have no difficulty 
in getting the necessary money to run the service. If an 
executive officer, either in your municipality or in your 
state or in your federal service, will honestly perform 
his duties, fearlessly selecting men only when they are 
needed, advancing those only who have merit, I venture 
to say that he will get the support of the legis¬ 
lators.— Extract from an address by Prof. Willis L. 
Moore, Chief of the United States Weather Bureau, be - 
fore the City Club of Chicago on February 13 th , /pop, 
published in the City Club Bulletin for March 3 d, 

1909• 

Efficiency Increased Over Three-Fold 

The Railway Mail Service was brought into the clas¬ 
sified service in 1889. In his annual report for 1897 the 
General Superintendent of the Railway Mail Service 
gives a table (printed below) showing the increase in 
efficiency of that service during the ten years. The 


IO 


direct result of the spoils system is seen in the increase in 
errors in 1890 concerning which the Postmaster General 
in his report for 1896 says: “It will be recalled that 
wholesale discharges of postal clerks were made on 
political grounds near the close of the fiscal year 1889, 
the effect of which appears in an increase of nearly 
1,000,000 errors in 1890 and the large falling off in the 
number, correct to each error. ” 


Year 

Pieces of 

Errors in 
distribu¬ 
tion 

Per cent 

Pieces 

ended 

June 

30— 

mail matter 
distributed 

In¬ 

crease 

De¬ 

crease 

correct 

to each 

error 

1888.. 

1889.. 

6,528,772,060 

7,026.837,130 

1,765,821 

1,777,295 

.66 


3,694 

3,954 

1890.. 

7,847,723,600 

2,769,245 

55.81 


2,834 

1891.. 

8,546,370,090 

2,005,973 


27.56 

4,261 

1892.. 

9,227,816,090 

1,658,457 


17.32 

5,564 

1893.. 

9,772,075,810 

1,367,880 


17.52 

7,144 

1894.. 

10,033,973,790 

1,281,094 


6.34 

7,831 

1895.. 

10,377,875,040 

1,166,682 

. 

9 

8,894 

1896.. 

11,166,323,240 

1,134,411 


2.76 

9,843 

1897.. 

11,571,540,680 

967,538 


14.71 

11,960 


Per cent 


In¬ 

crease 

De¬ 

crease 

7.04 



28.33 

30.35 


30.58 


28.40 


9.62 


13.57 


10.67 


21.51 



It will be seen that the percentage of errors in the 
distribution of mail matter decreased under the opera¬ 
tion of the civil service rules from 1 in 3,694, to 1 in 
11,960. 

In his report for 1897 the General Superintendent 
of the Railway Mail Service states that during 
these 10 years the amount of mail matter handled has 
increased 77.2 per cent., but that the increase in force 
has been only 48.6 per cent. 


Improved Character of Appointees 

The civil-service laws and regulations as applied to 
the Railway Mail Service, accomplishes all the most 
sanguine expected. The eligibles for appointment who 
have been certified and selected excel in the funda¬ 
mental qualities, such as suitable age, good physical 
condition and habits, activity and retentiveness of 


































memory, and prospective growth and length of useful 
service. 

Having such desirable undeveloped material to work 
upon, the management experiences less difficulty in 
molding it into well-disciplined, industrious, thoughtful, 
efficient clerks. A much larger per cent of the proba¬ 
tioners succeed in earning permanent appointment, and, 
under the system of development which obtains in the 
service, they continue to improve during their connec¬ 
tion with it, and as opportunities occur, are advanced in 
class according to their merits. In the judgment of this 
office the present efficiency could not have been obtained 
under any other method— Report of the General Super¬ 
intendent of Railway Mail Service, 1894 . 

No Padding of Payrolls Around Elections 

There had formerly been a great abuse in the way of 
employment of labor in the navy yards just before elec¬ 
tion, and a law was passed prohibiting such employ¬ 
ment except in case of urgency. The law accomplished 
nothing. Urgency was always declared. In the Pres¬ 
idential election of 1888 the old system of appointment 
of laborers for political reasons obtained. On Septem¬ 
ber 1 of that year there were fourteen hundred and odd 
employees in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. On November 
1 there were 2,500. By December 1 the number had 
shrunk again to less than 1,400. Ower 1,000 men were 
employed during the two months before election, and 
were discharged inside of a month after election. That 
was in 1888. 

During the course of the next Presidential term the 
service was practically classified, the registration system 
was established, and on September 1, 1892, 2,200 were 
employed. On November 1 there were 2,052 men. In¬ 
stead of 1,000 more, 150 less were employed. On De¬ 
cember 1 the same number were still employed.— Assist¬ 
ant Secretary of the Navy, Roosevelt, in testimony be¬ 
fore the Senate Committee on Civil Service, February /, 





National Civil Service Reform League 


EDWIN A. ALDERMAN, 
JOSEPH H. CHOATE, 
HARRY A. GARFIELD, 
GEORGE GRAY, 

ARTHUR T. HADLEY, 
HENRY CHARLES LEA, 


PRESIDENT: 

CHARLES W. ELIOT. 

VICE-PRESIDENTS: 

SETH LOW, 

FRANKLIN MACVEAGH, 
GEORGE A. POPE, 

P. J. RYAN, D. D., 
MOORFIELD STOREY, 
THOMAS N. STRONG, 
HERBERT WELSH. 


LIBRARY 



CONGRESS 


028 070 928 1 


SECRETARY: 

ELLIOT H. GOODWIN. 

ASS’T SEC’YS: 

ALBERT DE ROODE. 


CHARLES B. MARBLE. 


TREASURER: 

A. S. FRISSELL. 


COUNCIL: 


RICHARD HENRY DANA, Chairman. 


WILLIAM A. AIKEN, 

FREDERIC ALMY, 

ARTHUR H. BROOKS, 

CHARLES C. BURLINGHAM, 
GEORGE BURNHAM, JR., 

SILAS W. BURT, 

JOHN A. BUTLER, 

EDWARD CARY, 

W. C. COFFIN, 

EVERETT COLBY, 

CHARLES COLLINS, 

WILLIAM E. CUSHING, 
NATHANIEL HENCHMAN DAVIS, 
HORACE E. DEMING, 

ROBERT G. DODGE, 

JOHN JOY EDSON, 

JOHN A. FAIRLIE, 

HENRY W. FARNAM, 

CYRUS D. FOSS, JR., 

WILLIAM DUDLEY FOULKE, 
RICHARD WATSON GILDER, 
CHARLES NOBLE GREGORY, 
HENRY W. HARDON, 

JOHN PHILIP HILL, 

ROBERT D. JENKS, 

WILLIAM V. KELLEN, 


JOHN F. LEE, 

WILLIAM G. LOW, 

GEORGE MCANENY, 

HENRY L. MCCUNE, 

HARRY J. MILLIGAN, 

WILLIAM B. MOULTON, 
SAMUEL Y. NASH, 

H. O. REIK, 

SAMUEL H. ORDWAY, 

JOHN READ, 

CHARLES RICHARDSON, 

HENRY A. RICHMOND, 
EDWARD M. SHEPARD, 

NELSON S. SPENCER, 

LUCIUS B. SWIFT, 

W. J. TREMBATH, 

HENRY VAN KLEECK, 

W. W. VAUGHAN, 

EVERETT P. WHEELER, 
CHARLES B. WILBY, 

ANSLEY WILCOX, 

C. D. WILLARD, 

FREDERICK C. WINKLER, 

R. FRANCIS WOOD, 

CLINTON ROGERS WOODRUFF, 
MORRILL WYMAN, JR. 


Offices of the League , 

No. 79 Wall St., NewYork 







